Lens Dilemma

Well I have'nt written on my blog for a few months and decided it was time to get it up to date, it's been an eventful time none the less.
Try as I might I just was'nt happy with my Sigma 150-600mm Sport, some results were excellent while others were shall we say lack lustre to say the least !

So I decided to take the plunge and sell it, it is no more !

Whilst on the subject of selling obviously we all want to get as much money as possible for our kit, selling on Ebay is going to cost you 14% of your sale price, to avoid this I posted my lens on Gumtree, I had three replies all of which were scam merchants, they say yeah want it and ask you to send payment details for your PayPal account and then they send you a dodgy email that looks like it has come from PayPal, saying that a payment has been received and will be held until a tracking number has been entered at which time the funds will be released into your account, yeah right ! 
The scammer then follows this email up with a " I have paid you can you dispatch today" they even say they will pay extra if you can get the item on next day delivery.

Don't fall for these scammers be careful with your stuff !!!

Next I have to decide what to replace it with, of course I would like to go out and buy a Canon 500mm f4 l is mk2 but even 2nd hand these beauties are over £6k so that is not going to happen, I just cannot warrant spending that sort of money on a lens, if I was earning a living from my photos it would be a different story.

Canon 7dmk2 Canon 100-400mm mk2 @ 400mm 1/640th f7.1 iso125

So the hunt is on, Sigma have a 500mm f4 in their armoury it has very good reviews, is the same weight as the Canon 500mm mk2 and according to a lot of the reviews I have read has a very similar image quality to the Canon version.

Currently the price for a new Sigma 500mm f4 is £4999 or very close to it everywhere I have looked I have seen it for £3999 on Amazon sold by a third party seller, I have emailed the seller but never had a response ! so that looks like a non starter.

Canon 7dmk2 Canon 100-400mm mk2 @ 400mm 1/640th f7.1 iso160

Other options are another Canon 500mm mk1 these can be had for around £2800 to £3800, mint condition being at the £3800 end of the scale.

I am tempted as the Canon 500mm f4 l is mk1 is a great lens, its also possible to pick up a Canon 600mm f4 l is for similar money, but is that going to be too heavy for my old bones ! and there is the repair issue should something go wrong with the lens, mk1's are getting a bit long in the tooth and are no longer supported by Canon.

Canon 7dmk2 Canon 100-400mm mk2 @ 400mm 1/640th f5.6 iso250

As soon as I have made my choice I will put a new post up about it.

Sigma 150-600 Sport Further Update On Auto Focus Micro Adjustment

After the loss of the settings from the AFMA table, I was miffed to say the least and decided to do a bit more work and report on the method and accuracy of the results.

As mentioned previously the Sigma 150-600mm Sport has the ability to be MA'd at 16 different points across the focal range using the Sigma Dock.
Unfortunately there is a lot of guess work involved, by this I mean you have to

1. take a shot of your target, 
2. review it, 
3. remove the camera body from the lens,
4. put the dock on make an adjustment, 
5. remove the dock, 
6. put the body back on
7. repeat the process

This has to be repeated for all 16 points multiple times for each point, which is daunting and time consuming.

So I thought I would try and come up with a similar method or at least a more streamlined method.
The first thing I did was get a DOF calculator out, using the widest aperture and the following distances 2.6m,6m,15m and infinity @ 600mm gives the DOF as .55cm,3.34cm,22.9cm and 93.4cm
which is ok but you need a target with a front to back length of at least a metre if not more.

Repeat these DOF calcs @ 400mm and you get 1.36cm, 8cm, 52.2cm and 211.7cm
Repeat these DOF calcs @ 250mm and you get 3.72cm, 21cm, 135.1cm and 548.5cm
Repeat these DOF calcs @ 1500mm and you get 10.5cm, 59.6cm, 383.2cm and 1619.7cm
The infinity calcs were done at 30m which is questionable, and to be honest I never bothered attempt any infinity adjustments.

How the hell do can you see how accurate your focal point is when you have such a huge DOF ?
the smaller distances are fine you can easily see the edges of the DOF as the sharp edges become less defined.
As for attempting to MA 150mm @ infinity/30m I'm jiggered if I have a scale that is 16.197m long in me back pocket !

At this stage I kind of lost the will to live.

I  did MA the lens at all focal lengths up to 15m took a long time, I used Reikan Focal Pro, first off I used Canon's built in MA adjustment to see if the Sigma needed tweaking.
At 2.6m no adjustment required  across the focal range Reikan reported 0 was the correct setting
At 6m no adjustment required @ 150mm and 250mm, @ 400mm and 600mm it needed tweaking final setting of -5 and -3 respectively.
At 15m 150mm needed +1, 250mm 0, 400mm 0, 600mm +5

In my humble opinion whilst it sounds like a light bulb moment having all these focal points to MA at in reality and practically it is too much of a faff to use the Sigma Dock, whilst initially I had loads of enthusiasm for this facility it has gone down hill fast.

I will probably end up using the inbuilt Canon MA and just MA it at 150mm and 600mm and be done with it !
Life is too short to be spending any more time on it.

Strange But True

Recently the results I have been getting with my Sigma 150-600 have been somewhat dismal, so today I connected it too the Sigma USB Dock and checked the AF settings only to discover that the entire AF table was empty !!

Note to self: next time write the bloody settings down !!!!

What has happened to em I dont know but that will hopefully explain the soft focus results I have been seeing of late.

Now all I have to do is go through the long drawn out process of setting it back up grrr !

Sigma 105mm f2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro Lens

Originally I had the Canon 100mm F2.8 mk2 and whilst it is a cracking lens I didn't use it that often, and as my photography had taken a turn towards wildlife I decided to sell the Canon 100mm lens and put it towards a Canon 500mm f4 L IS (which has now also been sold as Canon decided it had come to the end of its life).
So when I read a review in Photoplus of a bunch of macro lenses  the Sigma 105mm f2.8 EX DG OS HSM Macro Lens came out as best value for money winner, at £360 whats not to like, its half the price of the Canon equivalent and almost matches the Canon on the image quality stakes.

After hunting around on the good old WWW and doing the necessary research I took the plunge, found one on sale at Mathers of Lancashire for £339 including delivery.

I ordered on the Thursday not expecting to see it until the following week, but i was wrong there, phone call from Mathers asking if i needed a filter for the front and informed me it would be on its way the same day for delivery on the Friday before 1pm !
True to their word it rocked up about 10.30am, fantastic service from Mathers!!

So far all I have done is MA'd it too my 5dmk4 using Reikan Focal, it needed a setting of  +2 to get the focal point on the money.
Other than that it looks like a good bit of kit for the money.

I will update this post when I get it out in the field.

Wasn't entirely happy with the MA results from Reikan Focal so I decided to do it old school on my home made ma test scale.
Aperture set to f2.8 iso 200 manually defocusing to both sides of the focal point  this is what I found.

 The above is the result using Reikan focal a setting of +2 on the MA scale, looking at this picture to me there is a slight back focus on this setting.

The above I have set MA to +20 which gives a big front focus.

On this one I have set MA to -20 which gives a big rear focus

Finally I have set MA to 0 and looking at this result I am happy that this is where it should be set.

All of these results are after multiple shots defocusing between each shot manually to ensure a consistent result.

A quick whizz into the green house for a tester shot.

Shot using a tripod f14 iso200 1/320th 105mm

So far pleased with this lens !

Gimbal Head Update

OK so I bought one of these NEST   NT-530H Mk2 some time ago,

Nest NT-530H MKII Carbon Fibre Gimbal Head

 Got it from these guys UK Digital


and I do love it, don't get me wrong, there is  no slop in the bearings etc good solid construction, great features:

• - 10 layer Carbon Fibre
• - Precision bearings
• - Arca-Swiss compatible
• - 360 degree pan
• - Load capacity of 25kg

My one gripe with it is that it is far from free moving.

After putting up with it since I have had it hoping it may free off with use I decided to strip it down and have a look at what makes it tick!

3 Alan bolts on the top removed the carbon fibre head leaving the horizontal rotating bit behind this is held in place with another larger Alan bolt which in turn has a plastic washer and a bearing race, once that is off  there is a black outer casing followed by the inner workings.
I have never in all my days come across anything so sticky as what was on the main bearing, whilst it might do a good job of lubricating the bearing it is this goo that gives you the damping effect and makes the head somewhat hard to rotate, and for BIF shots etc it makes life easy if the gimbal head moves freely.
I was impressed with the construction, precision and quality of the bearings is very good it is just the goo that spoils it for me.

So I dunked it all in some white spirits to remove the sticky goo and repacked it with High Melting Point Lithium Grease, whacked it all back together and hey presto beautiful smooth rotational movement, just what the doctor ordered

As for the up / down axis I have left that with the sticky goo as that stops your lens / camera setup doing a rapid nose dive if you haven't got it balanced correctly.

A quality bit of kit at a reasonable price only spoilt by the goo they put it together with.

Restharrow Scrape 20.4.18

A cracking morning light winds, bright sunshine great conditions, arrived about 0800 for today's outing I am using Canon 5dmk4 and Sigma 150-600 Sport.

Surprisingly I was all alone in the hide this morning, not a great lover of Greylag Geese but I did feel a bit sorry for this one individual, there is a pair of Swans nesting over the far side of the scrape and Mr Swan, here just flexing his muscle,

1/1250th @f9 iso400 600mm

was being very territorial, he would not leave this particular Graylag alone.

1/1250th @f8 iso400 600mm

Then a pair of Canada Geese dropped in and one of them decided that (I assume it was the he) he was going to get the same Graylag and continued to chase it for some time,

 1/1000th @f11 iso1000 600mm

 1/1250th @f11 iso1000 600mm

which gave Mr Swan a breather.

Next up Mr Swan decided he had had enough of this shenanigans and set about the Canada Goose, it really was quite entertaining !

 1/1000th @f8 iso400 600mm

1/1250th @f8 iso320 600mm 

Eventually they all calmed down and started to go about there own business !

There was also Northern Shoveller, Gadwall, Shell duck, Little Grebe, Coot, Mallard, Lapwing and Tufted duck on the scrape.

Oare Marshes 16.4.18

First day out for ages, beautiful sunny morning arrived at Oare  about 0700 bit late really but hey ho.

Overall pretty quiet walked along the sea wall and up the estuary, first decent spot was a Peacock Butterfly on Hawthorn blossom, kit for today is the Canon 7dmk2 with my Sigma 150-600 Sport.

1/500th @ f8 iso200 600mm

It just sat there displaying those big scary eyes, I couldn't resist a shot of it.

Shortly after that a few bearded Tits put in an appearance but they just wouldn't sit nicely, just couldn't get a good clean shot, the best I could do was this one.

1/400th @f8 iso200 600mm

Plenty of Sedge Warbler activity again getting a clean shot was the issue, it was just one of those days where the birds just didn't quite perch in the right spot, this Sedge Warbler I watched for 20 minutes it was displaying and singing using the same bush, it would fly up into the air hover and dive down into the base of the bush, then work its way back towards the top.

1/400th @f8 iso200 600mm

Again it never sat in the right spot clear of twigs and shadows !

1/250th @f8 iso200 600mm

None the less an enjoyable walk round Oare.